While institutional purchases continue unabated in the crypto market, noteworthy developments are taking place in both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Strategy, led by Michael Saylor, and Bitmine, an Ethereum-focused asset manager, further strengthened their market positions with large purchases in the past week. However, losses on the balance sheet and macroeconomic uncertainties add a different dimension to the picture.
Strategy is losing money but continues to buy
Michael Saylor's company, Strategy, purchased an additional 4,871 BTC for approximately $330 million in the first week of April. With this latest move, the company's total Bitcoin holdings reached 766,970 BTC. This portfolio, worth approximately $53 billion at current prices, continues to make the company one of the largest institutional Bitcoin investors by far. However, the company's balance sheet also reveals the short-term risks of this aggressive buying strategy. Strategy reported an unrealized loss of $14.46 billion on Bitcoin assets in the first quarter of 2026. This loss was also detailed in the 8-K report submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
On the other hand, this decline in value also created a significant tax advantage for the company. Thanks to these losses, Strategy obtained $2.42 billion in deferred tax assets. This has the potential to reduce the company's future tax burden.
With the recent purchases, the company's average Bitcoin cost also slightly decreased to $75,644. This shows that Strategy continues to optimize its cost basis despite price fluctuations. It is stated that the purchases were financed through the company's "at-the-money" (ATM) share sale program.
Strategy's long-term plan is also quite ambitious. Under its strategy called "42/42," the company aims to raise a total of $84 billion in capital by 2027. A large part of this resource is planned to be used for new Bitcoin purchases. In addition, the company added a US dollar reserve to its balance sheet last year, creating a more flexible structure in terms of dividend payments and liquidity management.
Bitmine is aggressively growing on Ethereum
While these developments are taking place on the Bitcoin front, a similar institutional accumulation process is also noticeable on the Ethereum side. Bitmine Immersion Technologies purchased 71,252 ETH in the week ending April 5th, bringing its total holdings to 4.803 million ETH. This amount corresponds to approximately 3.98% of the total circulating ETH supply.
The company's current Ethereum holdings are worth approximately $10.3 billion. Bitmine had previously stated that it aimed to reach 5% of the circulating ETH supply. With the recent purchases, it appears that this goal has been significantly approached.
The company's Chairman, Tom Lee, emphasized that Ethereum is performing strongly in the current market conditions. According to Lee, ETH is one of the best-performing assets despite the geopolitical tensions that have continued for the past six weeks. Especially in a period when the conflict stemming from Iran is putting pressure on global markets, Ethereum's positive divergence is noteworthy.
Bitmine also holds a strong position in the staking sector. The company's total staked ETH has reached 3.33 million, representing approximately $7.1 billion, making Bitmine one of the world's largest institutional ETH staking companies.
